The Temple Owls came into Lawrence, KS riding high off of their victory a week ago against the Tennessee Volunteers. Unfortunately for the Owls, they left with a 71-59 loss to Jayhawks Saturday afternoon. Kansas was able to secure a hard fought victory on the back of their regular contributors Cole Aldrich, Sherron Collins, and Tyshawn Taylor.
Cole Aldrich was the key to Kansas jumping to an early 13-2 lead in the first 10 minutes. Aldrich scored 6 points, as well as 2 rebounds and a block, in that span. Unfortunately, Aldrich received his second foul at the 8:51 mark and was forced to sit the remainder of the second half. At that point, the Owls started to claw their way back into the game. Dionte Christmas led the way with 21 points for Temple and the Owls shot a scorching 55% from three point land in the first half.
At the two minute mark of the first half, Kansas was hanging on to a 31-30 lead. KU then started to get its act together and put together a 7-0 run, that was topped off by a huge 3-pointer by Brady Morningstar. KU went into halftime with a 38-30 lead, and the momentum on their side.
When Aldrich returned for the second half, it became apparent that KU was going to focus on getting the ball inside to put the Owls away. There was a clear focus in the second half for the ball to go inside to initiate the offense. Sherron Collins and Tyshawn Taylor did an excellent job of penetrating and dishing, as well as entry passes to the post. The game was still tight up until the 8:00 mark, but KU overpowered the Owls with quicker guard play and a suffocating defense.
Head coach Bill Self has plenty of good things to take away from this game. Cole Aldrich showed that he has the ability to play against larger big men and can be productive. Temple’s center, Sergio Olmos, is a legitimate 7′ with nice post moves, and Aldrich had little problem exerting his will upon him. Tyshawn Taylor showed that he is more than capable of running the point and handling the ball for the hawks. He scored 11 points and dished out 8 assists, while only giving up one turnover. This allowed Sherron Collins to move over to the wing for much of the second half and run off of screens to get open jumpers.
There are still some areas that the Jayhawks need to improve upon. Aldrich is going to have to learn to play without getting into foul trouble in the first half. He has done a nice job in the second half of games, but he is limiting his minutes by picking up silly first half fouls. Also, the Morris twins need to improve their post play. Lavoy Allen and Ramone Moore were able to get numerous loose balls and offensive rebounds in the first half when Aldrich was on the bench. Matt Kleinman actually saw some crucial minutes late in the first half due to ineffective play by the twins. For Kansas to win next week against Tennessee, the Morris twins and Aldrich will need to improve in these areas.
